On Monday, Dr. John Jacobs opened the Upper School’s inaugural Indigenous Peoples’ Day Movie Night by welcoming Brooklyn Demme, director of the documentary "Akuy Eenda Maawehlaang: The Place Where People Gather." The film chronicles the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation’s struggle for the right to assemble and to pray on their own lands in nearby Mahwah. This movie night marks the beginning of a long-term engagement at MKA with indigenous languages and cultures both here in the United States and around the world, and in particular, the beginning of our engagement with the Lenape, whose homeland of Lenapehoking embraces much of the modern tri-state area and extends into parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The event was a great opportunity to engage with each other and learn in order to ensure that our work here at MKA is informed by an authentic engagement with the contemporary Lenape experience. Thank you to everyone who attended!